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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jun 9, 2016 - 09:42am PT
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There have been numerous threads involving astronomy and stargazing in the past, but I just want to alert all interested in the hobby of the unusual opportunity to view 3 of the major planets these early summer evenings.
Jupiter is still high in the western skies these early evenings, and is easily identified as the brightest "star" visible in that direction. Even with a small telescope, it provides the amusement of the Galiliean satellites doing a daily (indeed, hourly) ballet around the planet. With a bit more aperture and magnification, some details of the north and south equatorial bands can be observed, as well as the "Great Red Spot."
Sliding eastward, the next extremely bright object glows brightly as a reddish object, easily identifiable as Mars. Mars is jus past opposition and it's closest approach to the Earth in 11 years.. A decent small telescope at about 100x magnification and with a green filter, should allow sighting of the polar icecaps.
A bit lower in the sky is a bright star-like object--the Queen of the Solar System, Saturn. The rings are at the maximum opening this approach, and we just passed opposition a few days past. Almost any telescope with magnification of ~ 20x will reveal the rings. Indeed, I've detected them in my Pentax 15x50 IS binoculars.
I've been out with my telescope almost every clear night, recently. A lot to see out there, and free for the taking.
What have YOU seen lately?
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Most people aren't fortunate enough to have a proper night sky.
Mind sharing your setup?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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I have noticed the Martian brightness, since you mention it, for the past month, especially.
It is one of the brightest objects in the SJ Valley night, as obscured as it is here by haze.
I'm in the center of downtown, so it's remarkably bright, considering the light distortion.
Out of town, it's really red and seems larger.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 9, 2016 - 10:37am PT
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drljefe-
OK, here are a few snapshots of my 'scope.
Technical details: Mirror; 14.5" diameter R.F Royce premium mirror, Strehl .945. f/5
Eyepieces available: 28mm William Otics UWAN; 17mm Nagler 17 mm T4; 10 mm SMC Pentax XW; 7mm SMC Pentax XW; 4mm William Optics UWAN. I also have a TMB 25mm Aspheric orrthoscopic, and 13mm Vixen Lanthanum Superwide.
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JEleazarian
Trad climber
Fresno CA
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Most people aren't fortunate enough to have a proper night sky.
Sadly true, but even at my site in northeast Clovis, with all the lights of the Fresno/Clovis metro area to my south, the planets show brightly. I havent taken my scope out of storage yet this year (a modest, 95mm Meade refractor on an unpowered equatorial mount), but Mars, in particular, made itself prominent for the last month at least.
John
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 9, 2016 - 02:35pm PT
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Yeah, the observatory has a motorized roll-off roof. My skies are darker than those at Joshua Tree and Chaco Canyon. As determined by a dark sky meter.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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That's really neat, bdc.
So if our sun were moved away, how far away could you see it with your tele?
Can your tele see 15th magnitude?
If so, if memory serves, it could see our sun equivalent at 3500 light years.
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 9, 2016 - 02:53pm PT
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HFCS-
I've done 15th magnitude with my old 12.5" Dobsonian; with my eyesight and using averted vision, I'm pushing 16th magnitude. With my really good Dobsonian, I've logged 7 different Globular Clusters within the Andromeda Galaxy, and all are fainter than 15th magnitude.
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ms55401
Trad climber
minneapolis, mn
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dark sky meter.
1 - are those accurate?
2 - cost?
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 9, 2016 - 04:05pm PT
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I've used one for a long time. Yes, they're accurate and are under $200.
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High Fructose Corn Spirit
Gym climber
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That's great, bdc.
I had an 8" bitd and was lucky enough to see Saturn as well at its max ring angle from earth. If memory serves it cycles through this max every 13 years or so.
haha, google makes it easy...
"Saturn's rings contribute a great deal to its brightness, and in fact, from the vantage point of the Earth, they are not always fully on view. About every 13 to 16 years, the rings are edgewise-on to the Earth's line-of-sight, when they are only seen as a thin line in telescopes - or sometimes not at all - and the planet appears much dimmer in the sky."
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 9, 2016 - 05:43pm PT
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HFCS-
This is my biggest and baddest scope ever, although I had one I liked even more: TMB 203 f/7 Triplet lens Apochromatic. I had to sell it to raise funds for my ex to go into a nursing home with Huntington's Disease. With that scope, I became one of the very few to see the Globular Cluster Palomar 12 with only 8" of aperture.
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NutAgain!
Trad climber
South Pasadena, CA
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Jefe, show us some big glass to drool over!
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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Not really at liberty to share pics of current projects.
Right now I'm working on parts of what will be the biggest digital camera ever made, to be integrated into a very large land based observatory in South America.
Another proj is 2x meter-class extreme aspheres that will piggyback onto the Mayall on Kitt Peak to research Dark Energy.
The last large primary I worked on but did not see through to completion, was the 4.24m off axis parabola for what will be the largest solar telescope in existence.
My old team with the primary pictured below.
Cool setup there Brokedownclimber!
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Nice scope Brokedown.
I used to sky hop like a boss with my Meade 12.5 f4.5 Dobs.
Now I have a sweet Meade 10" f6 with great resolution. Unfortunately the motor drive is discouraging and time consuming to set up. I was faster than the motor with a Dobs.
We will get out there. Thanks for pushing.
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drljefe
climber
El Presidio San Augustin del Tucson
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The most amazing telescope I've ever toured-
The Large Binocular Telescope, Mt Graham Az
That's a 40' bearing!
One of two 8.4m f/1.14 parabolas.
I'd love to get into amateur astronomy.
Too busy working.
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Charlie D.
Trad climber
Western Slope, Tahoe Sierra
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From David Cortner's site, link above....awesome, thanks PSP!!!
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Brokedownclimber
Trad climber
Douglas, WY
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Topic Author's Reply - Jun 10, 2016 - 07:23am PT
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I'm always appreciative of those in the hobby doing photography, but I am also one of those who likes to be challenged by seeing things with my Mark I Eyeball. This means I continually am seeking out those "faint fuzzies," right at the limits of visual detection with the equipment at hand.
Since I'd been out of operation for about 6 years due to personal circumstances, I'm simply repeating the pathway I took several years back, by doing the entire list of Deep Sky Objects in Phil Harrington's great observing book, Star Watch. This is a season-by-season guide to observing some of the most intriguing objects visible through amateur scopes. There's even an online awarded certificate for completing the challenge, but since 2003, there have been only 19 individuals complete the list. Here's a link to the website:
http://www.philharrington.net
My favorite class of object for observation are Globular Clusters, and I've made significant inroads on observing all the Messier, NGC, and Palomar Sky Survey clusters visible from the Northern hemisphere.
I've begun working on extragalactic globulars, as well, which is the reason for such a large scope, one capable of viewing the 16th magnitude.
My goals for this year: Palomar 4 (the most distant object visible from the northern hemisphere that's still part of the Milky Way galaxy); the Terzan clusters in the Sagittarius Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy; the Dwarf Galaxy WLM (Wolf-Lundmark- Melotte) and it's sole globular cluster, WLM-1.
I choose to do these things, not because they are easy, but because they are HARD.
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